Feeling safer today

The same thing that makes San Joaquin County a transportation hub - evidenced by vast warehouse complexes sprinkled about - also makes the county a crime hub.

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Posted Apr. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Apr. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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The same thing that makes San Joaquin County a transportation hub - evidenced by vast warehouse complexes sprinkled about - also makes the county a crime hub.

The county is crisscrossed with freeways making moving product easy, be it chocolate and televisions or marijuana and meth.

We don't want to get rid of our transportation system. We do want to get rid of those using it for crime.

That was the impetus behind a four-month, multiagency undercover operation that resulted in some impressive results:

» 55 arrests;

» 84 weapons seized (including six machine guns);

» 36 pounds of methamphetamine seized;

» 21 pounds of marijuana seized;

» 100 grams of heroin seized;

» 55 grams of crack seized.

And almost from the moment these operations got under way, Stockton experienced a precipitous drop in the number of homicides. In the first quarter of this year, homicides were down 62.5 percent compared with the same period in 2012.

Stockton may not be safe, certainly not as safe as we want it to be, but it is safer today than before federal, state and local agents and officers began rounding up some of the worst of the worst.

The 56 arrested had a total of more than 460 prior arrests and about 100 felony convictions. In other words, slow learners.

They could find they have time to learn. Forty-four of those arrested face federal charges. If convicted, they face time in federal prison, where they must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.

The 11 others arrested will be processed through the state judicial system.

Law enforcement officials, including Stockton police, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office deputies, the California Highway Patrol and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, are rightly proud of their work on what's being called Operation Gideon IV. They should be.

It sends a strong message to the criminal gangs that use our city as an operational hub. But sending the message is one thing. Sustaining it is another.

That's why what comes next is as important, perhaps more important, than what's come before.

The City Council has approved the city's so-called anti-crime Marshall Plan, a broad-based communitywide effort to not just arrest those causing the most trouble but to keep those most likely to turn to a life of crime from doing so.

That will take more than just additional cops on the street. It will take time, commitment and money.

It would be wonderful to believe Operation Gideon IV was the end. It's the beginning. In the 1980s, this city, again in part because of its easy freeway access, became the hub for criminal activity and violence surrounding a crack cocaine epidemic. A strong police effort in those days combined with other anti-drug and anti-crime efforts helped push down both drug use and crime.